Catching up with 2017

For some reason in 2017 I lost my blogging mojo, so now its catch up time.

My last blog entry finished in Langtry, Texas; as we left it turned cold and rainy, so we continued on until we ended our day at the small town of Marfa.   Marfa has a couple of claims to fame, one is that Liz Taylor and James Dean filmed the movie ‘Giant’ there in the 1950’s.   It was James Dean’s last film and for part of the time the stars stayed in the Hotel Paisano.   Sadly, over the years the hotel went to rack and ruin, but now it’s been beautifully restored and is on the National Historic Register. 

Even though the sun had come out when we arrived it was still very cold and this roaring log fire was very welcome.

As well as the Liz Taylor, James Dean connection, Marfa is also famous for unexplained lights in the desert.   There are various suggestions as to what the lights could be, including car headlights and some type of marsh gas, but as there were reports of strange lights in the desert way before cars were invented, who knows.  

We were told that the best time to look for the lights was dawn or dusk; as we didn’t fancy getting up before dawn, we decided to look for them as dusk fell.  We waited and dusk turned into an incredibly dark, moonless night, bitterly cold and very eerie.  Did we see the lights?   Well, we saw something far out in the desert that we couldn’t account for, but whether or not they were the actual Marfa lights, who knows?

It was still chilly the next morning we left Marfa

and after a quick coffee stop in Van Horn, we left Texas in our rear view mirror as we entered New Mexico.   After an overnight stop in Deming, we arrived in Tucson where we picked up the truck and fifth wheel and headed off to our first stop California.

We stayed in Needles for a couple of nights where we took a trip to Buckskin Mountain State Park on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.   It’s really nice place with a small RV park, picnic tables by the river and a swimming area, although the river was very cold.

Continuing on through the Mohave Desert, which after all the winter rain was actually green, we crossed Tehachapi Pass and stayed overnight in Bakersfield, California.   The next day we drove to Paso Robles, which is a lovely town with the advantage of being only a short drive to the Pacific Ocean.

We stayed for a week and during that time we had lovely sunshine and clear blue skies, but the whole time there was a strong chilly wind.   Luckily as the beaches we like are sheltered by headlands it didn’t stop us enjoying our trips to the ocean, although I have to say the water was so cold it turned my toes blue!

As usual we went to see the Elephant Seals and while the sunshine was lovely here there was absolutely no escape from the chilly wind.

Our drive along the Pacific Coast Highway ended at Ragged Point as further along the road had been damaged by landslides during the previous winter.   Because it was so quiet Ragged Point was lovely, we sat in the sunshine drank coffee and ate the most scrumptious, and enormous, pieces of homemade carrot cake.

   

Have fun, we are!